Weekly Rundown- Still Plugging Along
Oh, hello! Welcome to the Weekly Rundown, brought to you by our intrepid hosts, Kim and Deborah. Check them out if you want further inspiration! Nothing earth-shattering about this week- still getting used to our schedule now that school has started. The high school schedule is very different from middle school, so it’s a big adjustment. But we can do it! Things are going well, for the most part. Let’s just see how it all went… Sunday 7.5 mile “long-ish” run. In the category of longer runs in the heat of summer where I don’t start early enough, this run was pretty okay. Monday Leg day at the gym. Squats, deadlifts, Bulgarian split squats, Runner’s Touch, calf raises and abs. Good workout! Tuesday 3 mile run. The struggle continues on school days to get out of the house on time, and thereby avoid the terrible traffic. By the time I’m running, it’s late, hot, and I’m in a bad mood. Oh well- we’ll get it right. And running is an automatic attitude adjustment, so by the time I get to work, all is well. Wednesday Double workout at the gym! First, a 4.5 mile treadmill run with hill repeats. I’m loving this workout, and unlike regular speed work, it’s not hurting my shins at all. Then, upper body strength. Bench press, overhead shoulder press, lat pulldowns, and abs. I do the overhead press with dumbbells, and it’s abundantly clear that my left side is much weaker than the right. What’s up with that??? Thursday Just to mix things up, I did a leg day at home. I focused on unilateral moves- lunges, Bulgarian split squats, runners touch, calf raises, and side planks. It was nice to do some things I don’t always get to at the gym. Friday I decided to make this my day off, partly because I needed time in the morning to take care of some nagging tasks and get my head together. In the evening we had a pep band preview show at the high school, combined with a dessert potluck. I have to admit I was a little cranky about this- I just didn’t feel like socializing on a Friday night, and who wants to go to a dessert potluck at 6 pm? When are we supposed to eat dinner? It was like the universe heard me and said, “Oh, so you’re complaining about going to hear your daughter’s band? How about if I ruin your cookies as a punishment?” Yes, I made my tried and true chocolate chip cookie recipe for the potluck, and for the first time EVER they came out horribly (I still don’t know what went wrong, but a major ingredient must have been omitted.) I had to stop at the store to BUY cookies, so by the time I got there I was extremely irritated. As always though, it was fun hearing the band. They did a little preview of their halftime show in the courtyard of the school (first game is in a couple weeks!) If you look way to the left you can see my daughter’s blue hair! One thing I’ll say- she’s easy to pick out in a crowd. Saturday A 5 mile run that felt GREAT! Maybe it’s because I stretched for fifteen minutes before bed on Friday night? The heat didn’t even bother me too much. Then I felt good all day at work. I’m sure I could do everything exactly the same next week and feel terrible, ha ha. These things can be so random. Sunday On tap: Leg day at the gym! Moving forward, I’m switching my long runs to Wednesday. Wednesdays and Sundays are my days off, and now that school has started I’ll have more freedom on Wednesdays to get out on a trail. As always, it was a week of mostly ups and a couple downs (I’m still a little mad about those cookies.) I’m excited about the week ahead, and eager to get further into the school year, with football games and concerts. Onward! How was your week? Have you had any cooler weather? – We don’t even pretend that it will cool down here for a long time. If we’re lucky, we’ll get a break from the heat in late October. If it’s super hot in your area, do you feel like you’re finally acclimated to the heat?- I guess I am, although next week I could be singing a different tune. We’ll see!
What If…
Oof. It’s been a rough week around here in a lot of ways. Getting back on the school schedule has been tricky; we can’t seem to leave the house as early as I would like, which means the drive to school takes twice as long as it should due to terrible traffic. And, guess what? Right away my daughter refused (in a continuation of last year’s crusade) to stand for the Pledge of Allegiance. This year it involves two teachers (they alternate odd and even days- so every other day either period 1 or period 2 is the first class, where they say the Pledge.) One of the teachers has asked everyone to stand to avoid offending others, and my daughter still refuses. I mean… I get it. It’s hard right now to feel patriotic when Florida is going off the rails, with DeSantis’s assertions that there were some good things about slavery (check out this interesting video.) I just wish we could have gotten through one week of school without conflict. My daughter is still in that phase where passion and principles are more important than other people’s feelings, and there are no gray areas. She will learn… I hope. Meanwhile I’m worried about how this will all play out. Put that on top of all the other mundane concerns of life (will we ever decide on a backsplash? What if the one we choose looks stupid?) and I was walking around in a fog of worry. On Wednesday I decided to indulge in a little retail therapy. While I was in Home Goods browsing through Halloween Decor- a favorite pastime this time of year- I came across this notebook: Yes. What IF it all works out? As a matter of fact, I recently had this conversation with my daughter. She was stressing about something relatively minor (involving her new class schedule) and I assured her it would all work out. She got annoyed with me: “You ALWAYS say that!” I said, “Yes, but think back. Has anything, ever, turned into a complete disaster? Or does it always work out in the end?” She tried hard, but couldn’t honestly come up with anything that had resulted in utter ruin. I rest my case! Taking my own advice, we’ve chosen a backsplash. (Hint: it’s not any of the ones I’ve already shown here- ooh! Drama and Mystery!) We’ll have it installed and then I can STOP THINKING ABOUT IT. And it will be completely fine. Would you consider yourself a worrier? Or do you usually feel confident that things will work out? – Usually I’m the latter- but I can get caught up in worry too. Photo by Matt Walsh on Unsplash
Reading and Eating
It’s been a while since I’ve done one of these posts! It’s partially because we didn’t cook for an entire week while the kitchen was torn up, and then I was in Texas for a week… but now that I’ve got my bearings again I have a couple meals to share, and a kitchen update. But first, books… I finished it! I finished the whole Ender Saga. Ender in Exile was the last book of the series, but is actually a direct sequel to Ender’s Game, as it picks up the action right where Ender’s Game left off. There’s a complicated afterward where OSC explains why he wrote the books in this order, but I didn’t really understand it. I would say you could read Ender’s Game and then this one, skipping the books in between (but why would you want to? The whole series is great!) I’ll definitely go on to read The Shadow Saga (there were some interesting facts about Bean in Ender in Exile that got me intrigued), but my son has those books at school with him. That’s fine, because I’d like a break from OSC to read some other books. Thanks to Engie for recommending this! From the book jacket: “Here are fifteen invaluable suggestions…for how to empower a daughter to become a strong, independent woman.” The only problem is, I’m wishing I had read it earlier. They say by the time your kids are twelve, all your work should be done (ack!) because that’s when you lose them to their peers. I’ve done my best (and will obviously continue to do so) but there are so many things I wish I had said or done differently. I take consolation in one of my favorite quotes from Ender in Exile: “What I understand now is this: there is no harder job than parenting. There is no human relationship with such potential for great achievement and awful destructiveness, and despite all the experts who write about it, no one has the slightest idea whether any decision will be right or best or even not-horrible for any particular child. It is a job that simply cannot be done right.” Thank you, Ender. Anyway, let’s talk about food. During the week our kitchen was unusable, we had lots of delicious takeout meals. Subway, Chipotle, Blaze Pizza, Maoz falafel sandwiches… but the winner was Bolay. I’m not sure if Bolay is everywhere or just a regional chain, but basically it’s healthy bowls. I opted to have Bolay twice that week. THEN, we went to Texas- more takeout! Moe’s Southwestern Grill, Mod pizza, and then believe it or not there are a couple restaurants with vegan options in Waco- a Poke place, and a Vietnamese restaurant. Yes, I was well-fed. A recent home-cooked meal (phew!) that really stood out were these peanut noodles recommended by Birchwood Pie. You guys. I’ve made lots of meals with peanut sauce in my day… but this one was the most delicious. We all loved it. I’ll be making it again, as often as possible. Now for the kitchen. Here’s where we’re at: SIGH. We did get the sink installed, so the kitchen is fully functional. But we’re completely stuck on choosing tiles for the backsplash. We had a friend look at it, and she suggested something more like this: Now we’re REALLY paralyzed with fear and indecision. I just want someone to come, make the decision for me, and install the backsplash. I’ll live with whatever they decide! What are you reading right now? What’s your favorite takeout meal? Who wants to come design my backsplash???
Weekly Rundown- Endings and Beginnings
Wow- this was a long week. i can’t believe I just got back from Texas a week ago! It took me a couple days to get my footing again after my trip; my daughter started high school; and I answered the question once and for all: Which is hotter, Florida or Texas? Read on for details! Thanks as always to Kim and Deborah for hosting. Sunday I REALLY didn’t feel like running today! I was tired from traveling the day before, and in order to make up some hours, I had crazily agreed to be at work at 9 am (grumble, grumble.) I slept as late as I could, then got out for 3 miles before work. As always, running made everything better. Monday It had been a week since I was at the gym (the hotel gym with two dumbbells just didn’t cut it.) I had a good leg day, including squats and deadlifts. Tuesday Hmmm, doing squats again after just one week off made me REALLY sore. I got out for a 3 mile run, and decided morning runs in Florida are officially harder than Texas. It’s around 80 degrees at 7 am in both places, but the humidity put the heat index at 90 for this run. Texas is drier so the heat index is lower EARLY IN THE MORNING. But as the day progresses, the heat index in Texas surpasses ours, even with our humidity. Also, we have a good chance of getting some rain in the late afternoon, which helps a little. In Texas once the sun is up there’s no hope- it’s just going to bake you until sunset. I asked my son if it ever rains, and he had to think about that, but said spring seems to be their rainy season. Wednesday Okay, I’m finally starting to feel back to normal. 4 treadmill miles at the gym with hill repeats! Since regular speed work always seems to hurt my shin (grr) I’m going to do hills once a week instead. It gives me the same cardio workout, but always feels good on my legs. Thursday Back to the gym. I realized the way my week was panning out, I had to do a full body workout today. Squats, benchpress, lat pulldowns, calf raises (always), abs and low back. I’ve been doing abs consistently and I think it’s making my stomach look even worse. Of all the muscles to get bigger, of course it would be my abs. Sigh! This was also a big day- my daughter’s first day of high school! She dyed her hair turquoise for the occasion. She doesn’t like her picture on the internet, but I say, what’s the point of having turquoise hair and a septum piercing if you don’t want everyone to see it? Friday Traffic is SO BAD the first week of school. What should have been a 15 minute trip to school took 40 minutes. As I said in this post, with my new schedule I’ll be doing my workouts after I take my daughter to school. By the time I was running, it was much later than I wanted and I was worried about the heat- but I was fine! Go figure. 4 miles and I still felt good at the end. And, very exciting- the Dolphins first pre-season game was tonight! Football season is here! Saturday Off! I like making Saturday my day off because I can sleep in a little before going to work. Sunday On tap- a longer run, 7-8 miles. My “summer of strength” will soon be at an end. In September I’ll still be going to the gym, of course, but I’ll start pivoting the emphasis to longer runs. According to the rudimentary training plan I’ve concocted, my long run should be 10 miles at the beginning of September. Overall it was a good week! It’s always hard to start a new schedule- my daughter had to shift her wakeup time, oh, about four hours earlier than her summer schedule. But she did well! I think we’re off to a fine start. Has school started where you are? Are you starting to think about football and fall? Or are you still in “summer mode?”